


Late Shift

by Lady_Ganesh



Category: Saiyuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, First Meetings, Gen, Youkai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:55:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26254507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh/pseuds/Lady_Ganesh
Summary: Gojyo has a new assignment that's not as straightforward as it seems.
Relationships: Cho Hakkai & Genjo Sanzo, Cho Hakkai & Sha Gojyo, Genjo Sanzo & Son Goku
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18
Collections: Alternate Universe Exchange 2020





	Late Shift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [opalmatrix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/gifts).



The client's building had been a big old house once, but was now chopped into offices. Trent had seen a picture during the briefing, but it was really only when he got out of his car that it hit him: this job was going to be a clusterfuck.

Jobs mostly went in one direction or the other - rich assholes or people who'd scraped up the last money they could beg and borrow in an attempt to stay safe. The rich assholes were easier, of course. Half the time he was just dealing with paranoia, maybe a disgruntled business partner holding a grudge. When people emptied out their bank accounts to hire Ushi Security, it was usually an angry husband or boyfriend, or a stalker the cops insisted was no big deal. That was when shit got actually dangerous. Trent didn't really mind those jobs, though. It was good to feel like he was helping people, keeping them safe. 

Something in the middle like this - mid-sized business, rented space - was usually bad news. But Red had said it was legit, and Red didn't let people wander in blind. It was one of the reasons his staff was so loyal. It kept Trent there, even if sometimes the work got to him.

Trent took the elevator up so he could see the cameras there himself. His brother had checked out the stairs and emergency exits last night while Red monitored the security setup. Their internal surveillance was pretty good, as it stood, and Red had already reinforced the firewall and disconnected everything from the cloud. It was supposed to be a straightforward, short-term job. No one in, no one out except for the Ushi team. Easy, if he didn't have such a bad feeling about it. He punched the (six-digit, maybe too short) code he'd been given into the door to let himself in.

He'd entered into a waiting room with one large desk, no doubt for the receptionist. Pretty generic layout, simple wooden furniture, very, very clean. Lyr was waiting behind the desk. "Hey," he said. "You all set?"

Goyjo shrugged. There was a deadbolt, and he slid it shut behind him. "No one in, no one out, right?"

"Yep. Three people in the office suite right now. I'll introduce you."

"Are they sleeping here?"

"Basically," Lyr said. "You'll see."

The deadbolt had already seemed weird.  _ You'll see _ promised it would get weirder.

"First we're gonna start with the office manager," Lyr said, and led him into what looked like an executive suite. "Hey," Lyr said. "My relief's here. This is Trent Sha."

The desk was empty, but there was a man at a small round meeting table just to the left. He was bent over a stack of papers and what looked like a set of blueprints. Trent tried to remember what the business they were working for actually did, and came up blank.

"Ah," the man said. "Already?"

"Time flies, Sir."

"I suppose it does." He straightened up. The man was on the tall side of average, thin, dark-haired with intense green eyes. On the pretty side of handsome. He had black-framed glasses, but they were pushed up above his forehead. Trent got a little hung up when he got to the man's mouth. "A pleasure to meet you, Trent." He bowed.

"Uh, yeah," Trent said, bowing back. "Nice to meet you."

The man was smiling, but it was the polite face a professional put on rather than a sincere greeting. "I'm Adam Cho. I manage the office and...well, a good portion of the business. Have you taken him to meet--?" His eyes were on Lyr. 

"No," Lyr said. "I figured we'd start out here."

Cho nodded, shortly. He was wearing a suit that looked very expensive and a shirt that looked like he'd slept in it. His tie was neatly tied, though. "Let me run you through the monitoring system. I understand you're quite familiar with it but--"

"No," Trent said. "Every setup's a little different. And I'll need to know where it is. I'm fine to see that first." He gestured at his backpack. "Is there a good place for me to put my stuff?"

"Ah, here is fine, it'll probably be more convenient. I'm afraid we're...we weren't prepared for this. If you'll follow me when you're ready..."

"I'm gonna clear out," Lyr said. "Things have been pretty quiet, and they should stay that way from what Red's been seeing. I'm on again in the morning."

"Sounds good." Trent fistbumped his brother, and then followed Cho down the hallway. The expensive suit was well-tailored. Showed off his ass. His mouth had been nice; the ass was damn close to distracting. So, um, they told me they'd give me more details when I got here."

"Yes, I...we should wait until we're all together. You'll meet our CEO shortly." The guy was acting pretty calm for someone who'd called for a security agent with less than a day's notice. He showed Trent the control panel; pretty straightforward, nothing Trent hadn't dealt with before. Trent took a couple of notes on his phone, and then Cho walked him back to the office next to the panel. "Please don't make any sudden movements," he said. "Or loud noises."

_ Why the fuck would I do that? _ Trent thought, but he let Cho punch in a code (more digits, this time) and open the office door. 

The lights were low and a set of heavy curtains blocked out much of the light, but Trent could still see inside. A bed--it looked like a hospital bed--was in the center of the room, with a sleeping figure hooked up to an assortment of flickering monitors. Sitting next to the bed was another man, thin and blond. One hand held his phone; the other tapped his fingers against the arm of his chair the way Trent'd seen chronic smokers do when they were getting desperate. Trent remembered the man's face from their file; this was the CEO. He didn't look particularly excited to see them. "This is Trent?"

"Yes. Lyr will return again in the morning. Red emailed me earlier, and said he hasn't seen any activity, so...perhaps things will remain quiet."

"Not likely," the CEO said, "but that's why we're paying." His voice was like rough honey. It occurred to Trent that he'd be sexy as hell if his expression wasn't so sour and exhausted. He stood up. He had a t-shirt on with suit pants. "Genjo."

Trent bowed.

"This is the room you're here to protect," Cho said. "Well. The person you're here to protect."

"Okay," Trent said. The figure in the bed was mostly covered by a sheet, though Trent could see one pale hand. An IV line snaked out from the sheet to a bag. "How many people know they're here?"

"That's a good question," Genjo said as he sat back down, his nails dragging against the plastic arm of his chair. "And I don't have any fucking answer."

"There's the medical professional who oversaw the transfer, of course," Cho said. "We tried to be discreet, but it's hard to tell what others might have seen. And the longer we keep our doors closed, the more obvious it will be, I'm afraid. My suspicion is that the risk rises significantly tomorrow."

Tomorrow was Monday. "Don't have any holidays you can decide to celebrate?"

Cho's smile flickered a little. "A good idea, but I'm afraid it's not going to be very plausible for us to close the office for National Donut Day."

"Too bad," Trent said. "I could have Lyr bring in donuts in the morning. Have a party."

"Are you done here?" Genjo said, and turned just enough toward the monitors that Trent could read his face well for the first time. He looked like he'd walked into the fucking abyss and hadn't pulled himself out yet.

"Let me just walk around the room," Trent said. He did have a job to do. He checked where the equipment plugged in, the placement of the windows, where the emergency lights were. "Lyr checked all the connections, right?"

"He did," Cho said.

"Okay. I'll go back out in the hallway, then, leave you guys--"

His arm caught the sheet for a second. When he went to put it back in place, Trent saw a flash of--

_ Wings. _ Dark and thin, like a dragonfly’s, almost flush against the figure’s back.

Well,  _ fuck. _

Everyone in the room froze. Trent felt Genjo move at his side, and his training said  _ shoulder holster. _

"Okay," Trent said, fast and steady. "I get paid to keep secrets, and you have...a secret. This is my job, okay? I can guarantee you I've seen weird shit before. I don't talk about it. To anybody."

Genjo hadn't moved an inch. The circles under his eyes were dark as bruises.

"Well," Cho said, "I think we can agree that your discretion is...appreciated."

"Required," Genjo corrected.

"Yes. Both those things. Why don't we go back into the light, so we can speak further without--"

"Sounds good," Trent said. 

They went back out to the main office, and Trent lounged over one of the big leather couches while Cho talked. "This is...an unusual situation, for us," he said, and Trent finally heard the tension under his calm.

"Yeah, well, people don't call us when things are boring."

"You're taking this well."

Trent shrugged. "You see a lot, doing what we do. I mean, Red told you we kept quiet, right?"

"Well, yes." He squinted. "Where did--" His hand went up to his glasses. "Oh, of course." He slid them back on his face, and he looked at Trent again. Trent realized they were tinted, just a little. "I realize this is asking for significantly more discretion than a cheating spouse or a case of corporate espionage."

Yeah, that was fair. "You can trust us," he said. "It's...nothing we haven't seen before. Any of the team working on your business. I can't say more than that but--that ain't the first set of wings I've seen."

Cho's eyes seemed a lot more intense with his glasses on. "We'd still appreciate it if you didn't tell your colleagues what you just saw."

"I can do that. Look, I know you don't want me to ask too many questions but--are they alone?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"That person you've got, in the bed. They--when they wake up. Get better. Do they know people who...who've been there?" 

Cho's guard eased a little. "Ah. I see. Our friend isn't alone, no."

"Okay." No way he was going to let someone think they were the only one out there. It had been bad enough when he was coming up, and he and Lyr had always had each other, at least. "So, um, tell me what your routines are. You two spell each other?"

"He doesn't leave," Cho said. "There's an en suite bathroom, at least."

"What about you?"

"Well...I think you can understand why your organization was hired. I'm afraid that I haven't been sleeping well here, and I'm not sure Genjo's sleeping at all. We can't do this by ourselves."

"I get it. Look, I know Lyr ran through a lot of this stuff with you, but it's easier to get it from the horse's mouth, and sometimes you remember something new if you go through it again. Why don't you run down what it's like here on a normal day, when there's no one hooked to an IV pump, and we'll go from there?"

"Of course," Cho said. "That might be easiest."

The person in the bed was their intern; his name was Cas. He was a local kid, in his early twenties. Cho sounded haunted when he talked about the kid, how sweet and generous he was, how he was normally full of energy. They'd always known about the wings. Cho wouldn't say how he got hurt, and Trent supposed it didn't matter, as long as he'd told Red what he needed to know. Trent knew he was just a grunt. The docs thought he would wake up, but wouldn't say when. Trent had a lot of questions about that, and knew he wouldn't get any answers. Normally that shit didn't even register; it wasn't his job and wasn't his place. But there were't that many youkai out there. He couldn't call it a connection. It wasn't even that strong. But it was something. Something about all three of them, if he wanted to be honest with himself. He'd have to ask Lyr later if he'd felt it too. For now, he could focus on the job. "You have enough food?"

Cho sighed. "Probably. Cas ate more than the two of us combined, and--"

"I'll have Lyr bring some stuff anyway for his next shift. You have a stove or a hotpot or anything?"

"It's a full kitchen, actually. But there's no need to--"

"We're here to keep you safe," he said. "Having either of you pass out ain't keeping you safe."

"Yes, of course," he said. "I suppose you're right. Thank you."

"When's the last time you slept?"

"I got some rest when your brother was here. It's...hard to adjust from crisis mode. It's hard to stop your mind from spinning."

"Yeah, I bet. Why don't you figure out when you want to sleep, okay? I'll go see if I can get your princess to take a catnap or something."

"I wouldn't hold my breath--"

Trent waved him off. "I can be persuasive."

Genjo was reading when Cho let him back in the room. "I'm fine," he said. 

"I figure you've got another day before you start seeing shit that's not there," Trent said. "You wanna take that chance?"

Genjo looked up. His hand snaked out and flipped the light switch next to the bed.

Most people would see the way Trent's eyes changed in the light and think it was their imagination, maybe a weird reflection from a passing car. Genjo was looking straight at him. Straight  _ through _ him.  _ Shit. _

"Lyr," he said. "He's your half-brother."

"Yeah." Youkai eyes caught in the light, like an animal's. Red wore sunglasses to cover it, Lyr tinted contacts. Only half-youkai had eyes like Trent's, though, the pupil contracting quick and tight in a way no human's did. Not many people knew the tell, so Trent didn't bother hiding it. But every once in a while you'd get someone like Genjo, who knew too much and paid too much attention.

Genjo's fingers were tapping again, though it was less obvious now. 

"Look, you can think what you want," Trent said, to break up the silence as much as anything. "But if Cho's right about the way you've been sleeping, you're as likely to put a bullet through him as you are to protect the kid."

Genjo's mouth tightened. 

_ Fuck you, asshole, you're not the only one who pays attention. _ "We both know I'm right." He let Genjo chew on it a little longer, then kept going. "Cho's awake, I'm awake. I'm paid to stay here, and I'm guessing you know Cho's not taking off. You're not going to help anyone if you crash."

Genjo put his hand to his shirt pocket, where his cigarettes weren't, and scowled. "Adam hasn't eaten," he said. "You make him shove some fucking food in his mouth, and I'll think about it."

Trent nodded. "I can do that."

Genjo's scowl turned into more of a smirk. "Can you?"

"I'm a professional, Mr. Genjo," he said, with his sweetest, hottest smile. "You'd better believe I can. And after that, you're sleeping. It can be a fucking cat nap for all I care. But I'm not working with somebody with visions of sugar plums dancing in his head."

"Make him eat. Not some shit you add hot water to. You do that, we have a deal."

"Okay," Trent said.

Cho was still sitting where Trent had left him, staring out into space. "Hey," he said. "I got Genjo to agree to sleep."

"Oh," Cho said, coming back to himself. "That's a relief."

"Yeah, I just gotta make you eat something."

"I've eaten," he said, drawing himself up. He looked hilariously wounded. 

"Top Ramen or Cup Noodle?"

He didn't respond, which was how Trent knew he'd hit home.

"Look. I'm gonna go into that kitchen, and I'm gonna cook something, and you'll eat it. And then your boss will sleep, before he passes out or starts seeing shit that's not really there. You signed a contract. Red puts a bunch of fine print in that shit that says you're not allowed to do stupid shit that puts yourself at risk. You eating vending machine shit and him trying to beat his college all-nighter record or whatever the fuck puts you both at risk. Got it?"

Cho wanted to challenge him, he could tell. This job was going to be nothing but dealing with stubborn assholes.  _ Well. Maybe you'll be in a better mood when you're not hungry. _

The kitchen had fresh food; fruits, vegetables, yogurt, eggs. There was some meat in the freezer, too. Trent got a package of bacon out for the morning and got to work.

He wasn't the best cook, but he and Lyr had lived together long enough that they were both solid with the basics. He chopped up enough onions and peppers for a decent omelet, and found the blender and filled it with yogurt and fruit while that was cooking. 

Cho came in while he was flipping the omelet. He went over to a cupboard and got out three glasses, carefully filling them with the smoothie Trent'd thrown together, and added straws. "We used to have whipped cream," he said thoughtfully, "but I'm not sure it's still good."

"Let's start simple," Trent said, flipping the omelet onto a plate. "Eat up."

"Please bring Genjo his drink," Cho said, mildly. "He hasn't been eating much better than I have, whatever he tells you."

"Liquid calories on the way," Trent said, and picked up a glass.

He waited until Cho's fork hit the eggs before he went back in. 

"He's eating," he told Genjo. "And he asked me to bring you this."

Genjo eyed the straw like it might be a trap, but he took the glass. 

"When'd you quit smoking?"

Genjo's eyes were on the bed. "I haven't."

_ Right. _ "I'll have him come in and tell you when he's done. Remember, you promised."

"Hn," Genjo said, but that meant he wasn't arguing.

Cho was still eating when he came back in; no surprise there. Seemed like the kind of guy who would take small bites and chew a hundred times or however often you were supposed to. Trent crossed over and picked up his glass. Tasted pretty good, if he did say so himself.

"Thank you," Cho said, after another careful bite. "I suppose I was rather hungry."

"It'll happen," Trent said, and slid out a chair at the little table. Cho looked up at him. His glasses had slipped down just enough, so that Trent saw the flash behind his right iris. Bright and reflective, like a wolf. Like family.

_ Well. Isn't that interesting.  _ Trent straddled the chair and sat down. "You want more?"

"It would probably be advisable, yes." He looked up again; no flash in the right eye this time, but that just meant Trent could focus on the left one.  _ Glass, _ he realized. Expensive, by how real it looked. "Do you often cook for your clients?"

"Only when I have to," he said. "But you'd be surprised what we have to do in this business."

"You'll have to tell me sometime," he said.

"I'll do that," he promised. "Now tell me what you want in this omelet."


End file.
